Chapter 53 Harmonious values ​​are the gift of Chinese civilization to the world

"Harmony will benefit both, and fighting will result in defeat" is not a concrete manifestation of the harmonious values? Yes, "both sides benefit from harmony, and both sides lose from fighting" is a concrete manifestation of the harmonious values.With the strengthening of comprehensive national strength and the improvement of international status, China's international influence is expanding. The proposal of a harmonious world and the advocacy of harmonious values ​​are increasingly welcomed by countries all over the world, especially neighboring countries. Some developing countries They are all discussing the "Beijing Consensus".

Remo also talked about harmony in Chinese civilization in the "Beijing Consensus".However, his understanding of issues such as harmony is still superficial, so he put forward the proposition of "light China", and even equated this proposition with a brand. This only proves that people are paying more and more attention to the role of soft power, that is, the attractiveness of ideas, institutions and policies.However, there is also a misunderstanding, that is, to regard soft power only as a foreign strategy and means, and this will discard the basics.Soft power refers to internally and externally consistent ideology and values, and the consensus of a country and nation, not an additional package to improve its image.Comrade Jintao pointed out that the construction of a harmonious society is to fundamentally upgrade China's modernization level and improve the Chinese people's concept of modern civilization.Only when all citizens agree with these ideas and express them through their own actions can China's soft power be truly and naturally enhanced. A "harmonious world" is our long-term goal, and we must work together with people from all over the world to strive for this prospect.

In order to truly and naturally enhance China's soft power, do we have to truly understand the profound cultural significance of the great revival of Chinese civilization? This is for sure.The great rejuvenation of Chinese civilization has profound cultural significance.It should be the unity of internal and external civilization construction, the unity of learning all the achievements of human civilization and making greater contributions to mankind, and the unity of cultural inheritance and cultural innovation.Although, like other countries, there are all kinds of revival views in China, the Chinese government and leaders are guiding the people with their own ideas and strategies, building consensus, and mitigating the interference and damage of various extremism.The process of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation must also be the process of overcoming various erroneous revival concepts and revival movements.The process of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation must also be the process of the rejuvenation of the Chinese civilization, a process of Chinese civilization making new contributions to mankind.The process of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation must be the process of making new contributions to mankind with the important ideas of "harmonious society", "harmonious Asia" and "harmonious world" and the idea of ​​China's peaceful development path.

From "harmonious society" to "harmonious Asia" and then to "harmonious world", is there a red line running through it, and this red line is the harmonious values ​​in Chinese civilization? Yes. In February 2005, Comrade Jintao put forward the idea of ​​building a socialist harmonious society at the provincial and ministerial-level leading cadre seminar held by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. , A society where man and nature live in harmony. In September 2005, Comrade Jin Tao proposed the idea of ​​building a harmonious world at the United Nations General Assembly.The idea of ​​a harmonious society and a harmonious world has received great attention and warm welcome both at home and abroad.Harmony, a value full of Chinese characteristics and oriental flavor, has also been promoted to the international community by virtue of this.From this, the whole world has come to know the harmonious values ​​in Chinese civilization.

Harmonious values ​​have long existed in Chinese culture. In Confucius’s words, "propriety is useful, and harmony is the most precious. The way of the kings, this is the beauty. Small and big, do not do anything. Know harmony and make peace, not with etiquette. , it is not feasible.” The values ​​of harmony are deeply rooted in Chinese culture, and many thinkers and philosophers even generalize Chinese culture as "harmony" culture.The so-called "gentlemen are in harmony but not in harmony, villains are in harmony but not in harmony", as well as "the unity of heaven and man", the harmony of heaven and earth, etc. are the essence of ancient philosophy.They not only occupy a core position in the "big tradition" of classics and elites, but also affect the "small tradition" of the general public. For example, the public regards Hanshan and Shide as the two immortals of harmony and worships them.

The idea of ​​harmony has also exerted considerable influence on the foreign policy of the People's Republic of China.During the Mao Zedong period, New China put forward the Five Top Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, including: mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, mutual non-interference in internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence.Subsequently, China, India, and Myanmar jointly advocated this principle, making it the basis of the Ten Principles of the Bandung Conference.When India and Myanmar advocated the principle of peaceful coexistence, they relied on their ancient religious culture, while China originated from ancient philosophical and ethical thoughts.When Premier Zhou Enlai attended the Bandung Conference, many Asian and African countries had doubts about socialist China. Premier Zhou said, I am not here to quarrel, and then put forward the idea of ​​"seeking common ground while reserving differences", thinking that ideological differences should be put aside. Contributed to the great success of the Bandung Conference.It can be said that this is an excellent case of resolving conflicts with harmonious values.Deng Xiaoping inherited and developed the Five Top Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, pointing out that when considering international relations, we should mainly proceed from the country's own strategic interests, and at the same time respect the interests of the other party, regardless of historical grievances or differences in social systems and ideologies , no matter how big or small the country is, they all respect each other and treat each other as equals, and any problem can be properly resolved.Before the end of the Cold War, Deng Xiaoping had been keenly aware of new trends in the world and raised the main issues of peace and development.He also put forward four principles for inter-party relations, namely, independence, complete equality, mutual respect, and mutual non-interference in internal affairs, which are not only used in socialist countries and workers' political parties, but also extended to relations with various types of foreign political parties .

Deng Xiaoping clearly pointed out as early as the early 1980s: "Our foreign policy, as far as our country is concerned, is to seek a peaceful environment to realize the four modernizations. This is not a lie, it is the truth. It is not only in line with The interests of the Chinese people are also a major event that conforms to the interests of the people of the world." After the end of the Cold War, especially after entering the new century, the international system, order and mechanism are undergoing rapid transformation, mankind is facing many new opportunities, threats and challenges, and China’s foreign strategy and policies have also encountered new issues and difficulties .Comrade Jintao inherited and developed the views of the three generations of leading collectives of the party on cultural diversity and world diversity, and further proposed that peace, development and cooperation should be written on our flag.If we say that in the past, China's foreign policy thinking focused more on mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, and mutual non-interference, but today it is more active in reducing conflicts and increasing consensus through cooperation.The goals of building a harmonious society internally and building a harmonious world externally are completely consistent and complement each other.

Is harmony more important than peace? that's for sure.Peace means not confronting each other with force, and not threatening to use force, but harmony requires mutual respect, mutual understanding, mutual help, mutual coordination, mutual support and common progress on the basis of peaceful coexistence.This is an idea rooted in Chinese and Eastern philosophical thought.As we all know, the theory of constructivism believes that international anarchy is divided into three cultures, the first is Hobbesian culture, and the relationship between countries is a life-and-death hostile relationship.The second is Locke culture. Countries are not enemies, but they are not friends either. The main relationship is competition.The third is Kantian culture, the core of which is friendship. There will be no more wars between countries, and they will resist and help each other when they encounter threats.The title of Kant's work is "On Perpetual Peace", which also takes peace as the highest goal.However, in Chinese culture and Eastern culture, there is not only peace, but also a higher state of harmony.Harmony is an important goal in the political cultures of East Asian countries.Although East Asian countries have also adopted the Western political democracy system, unlike the West which emphasizes voting and the minority obeying the majority, East Asian countries often spend a lot of time coordinating and communicating before voting in order to reach a greater consensus.Therefore, the concept of harmony contains at least some important contents, such as inclusiveness, seeking common ground while reserving differences with an open mind, and inclusiveness; such as self-discipline, a responsible attitude towards the world is self-discipline, and do not do to others what you do not want; such as altruism If you only talk about self-interest, it will be difficult to achieve harmony; another example is non-compulsory, do not teach etiquette, and do not impose your will on others.Obviously, under the concept of harmony, international relations can make greater progress in the right direction.

What is the meaning of the idea of ​​harmony? The idea of ​​harmony has deep meaning.It points the way forward at a time when major and drastic changes are taking place in international relations, the international order, and the international system.The traditional dominant realism theory believes that all countries pursue the maximization of their own interests, and the interests of each other will inevitably collide, so strength is the decisive factor.This theory predicts only the jungle state of the jungle.However, human society is progressing, and will eventually break away from the jungle animal kingdom, and a harmonious world is the bright future for human existence.It should be admitted that there are still many phenomena that destroy harmony in the current world, especially the influence of the Cold War mentality and zero-sum games in people's ideas is deeply rooted, which has become the biggest obstacle to world harmony.It is precisely because the world is not harmonious that it is more necessary to talk about harmony and to be guided by the concept of harmony.Former French Prime Minister Raffarin pointed out that the mainstream of thought in the 20th century is confrontation, while the mainstream of thought in the 21st century should be harmony.At present, many scholars in France advocate pluralistic thinking, and believe that politics should include opposing, opposing and conflicting viewpoints. In summary, it can be called "transcendence" or "harmonious" thinking, and the ancient Chinese civilization can precisely serve this purpose. made a great contribution to the development of this kind of thinking.

Have you ever heard such a saying that the world today is very disharmonious, and our mention of a harmonious world is wishful thinking, self-indulgence, and utopia? This statement is specious.The world today is still very disharmonious. In order to create harmony, disharmony must be transformed into harmony.The establishment of a harmonious world is a long-term goal that requires the joint efforts of all countries in the world. China will first practice it and promote its development with its own foreign strategy of peaceful development.The rapid and continuous growth of China's economy will inevitably create economic competition with other countries, such as competition for foreign investment, competition for export markets, competition for imports of energy resources, and so on.Much competition is benign and contributes to the modernization of countries.However, there is also some competition that will harm the fundamental interests of some countries, especially the least developed countries, because their economies are too weak to stand up to what appears to be a fair competition.In this case, it is particularly important to seek ways of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation.Even with an economy more advanced than China's, China should and can seek common interests and reduce friction and contradictions.China is one of the few major countries in the world with many neighbors, and territorial and border disputes will have a fatal impact on China's foreign relations.However, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, especially after the reform and opening up, China successfully delineated land borders with most of its neighbors in the spirit of mutual understanding and mutual accommodation, and reached a principle of resolving border disputes with India.In the more complicated division of sea boundaries, China has already made a successful attempt to delimit the sea boundary of the Beibu Gulf with Vietnam.China and ASEAN countries have reached the "Declaration on Joint Behavior in the South China Sea", and companies from China, Vietnam and the Philippines have also started joint exploration and development of marine resources.As for facing non-traditional security threats, countries are more likely to cooperate.Therefore, in the face of the conflict of interests, the principle of zero-sum game is not the only one. The pursuit of win-win cooperation will contribute to the construction of a harmonious world.

Seeking common interests has begun to be accepted by China and other countries, but when it comes to differences in social systems, cultural values, and ideologies, many people think that there is an insurmountable gap, and it seems impossible to achieve a harmonious state. In fact, this is an absolute way of thinking.Wen Jiabao said in an article published in People's Daily on February 27 this year that democracy, freedom, and human rights are the achievements of civilization created by human beings, which has already expressed China's attitude.Although there are differences, we also share many common values ​​with people from all over the world, for example, we all pursue peace and development, we all value family and education, and so on.Especially in terms of values ​​such as democracy, human rights and freedom, which are quite different between the East and the West, globalization and modernization have also narrowed the gap in people's thinking.Since the reform and opening up, the implementation of the market economy has enabled individuals to enjoy greater freedom, and people's enthusiasm has been greatly brought into play.China has written respect and protection of human rights into its constitution, and China has participated in most human rights conventions in the world, even surpassing the United States.China has always regarded the construction of socialist democratic politics as an important goal, and has begun to make new experiments in the construction of democratic systems, such as direct elections at the grassroots level in rural areas, self-government by villagers, self-government by urban communities, and so on.When China participates in global anti-terrorism cooperation, it also means acknowledging that regardless of gender, nationality, race, or class, human life is precious. This is the most basic human right recognized internationally.Therefore, Nicholas Pratt, former president of the Asia Society of the United States, said that China and the United States are not only economically interdependent, but also de facto allies in the fight against terrorism, and they also share common values.Therefore, it is a rigid Cold War mentality to regard differences in social systems as completely different values. Undoubtedly, there are many different cultural values ​​in the world today. Among them, the differences between the more prominent Western cultural values ​​(especially American cultural values) and the cultural values ​​of the vast number of developing countries are concentrated in whether they emphasize the individual or the collective, and whether they emphasize sovereignty or human rights. , Thinking that the world should be unitary or pluralistic.However, even Western culture is not monolithic. Europe has done a good job of reflecting on the history of colonialism and imperialism, and many elites agree with multiculturalism and a multicultural world.The cultures of developing countries are extremely diverse and vary widely.However, on the basis of acknowledging cultural diversity and world diversity, countries can respect and understand other countries, nations, cultures, and religions, seek common ground while reserving differences, coordinate and cooperate, and pave a new path for a harmonious world. Therefore, in the historical process of China's peaceful rise, we must not only emphasize common interests, but also emphasize shared values.Driven by interests and constrained by mechanisms, laws, and organizations, international cooperation can also be implemented; however, if there is guidance and bonding of shared values, cooperation will be smoother and more effective.China, like other developing countries, has consistently emphasized cultural diversity and world diversity, which is absolutely necessary.However, in the future, China will not only emphasize cultural diversity, but also cultural unity. Unity does not mean obliterating the identity of individuality, nor does it unite with the "universal values" of Western culture, but the unity based on absorbing the excellent values ​​of all diverse cultures, and it is the development and accumulation of more shared values ​​of human beings. .Western countries took the lead in completing the modernization of culture, and then spread their cultural values ​​worldwide.All cultures in the world have the potential to spread to other countries as long as they are modernized.China has established a market economy, a modern political system, and a modern social structure in the process of modernization, but in terms of how to realize modernization, it has to go through the selection, filtering, and guidance of its own history and culture. How does the value of a harmonious world affect China's path of peaceful development? In the rapid changes in the international system and international order after the Cold War, China's sustained economic growth and social development is one of the most significant changes.If, in the past, what China was worried about was the impact that the outside world might have on China’s development, today it is not only necessary to consider external influences, but also to study what kind of impact China’s development may have on the outside world.Because of the speed, force and unpredictability of the impact, it can also catch the outside world off guard, causing confusion and distress.From a mid- to long-term perspective, the changes in the international system will continue to accelerate, China’s great changes will continue, and the way of interaction between the two will also change accordingly. This will indeed be a new challenge for China.To meet the challenge, China has no choice but to rise peacefully.Peaceful rise is also the path with the least cost and the greatest effect.In other words, China's rise must be supported by major powers, neighboring countries, and countries all over the world. Only in this way can a win-win situation be achieved. What else should we do in order to achieve a multi-win and mutually beneficial situation? First of all, we must change the erroneous understanding and unify the thinking of the people of the whole country.In the process of reform and opening up, the Party Central Committee spent a lot of energy to reverse the "class struggle as the key link" to economic construction as the center.Today, it should be even more recognized that the Cold War mentality cannot be defeated by the Cold War mentality, the "China threat theory" cannot be overcome by the zero-sum game rules, and national rejuvenation cannot be achieved by extreme nationalism.Only with the new concept of harmony can China's national interests be truly safeguarded. Do you think the idea of ​​a harmonious world and China's path of peaceful development can be accepted by the world? Although there are still many unfavorable factors in the world, the concept of a harmonious world can still be accepted by the world, and China's path of peaceful development can also be accepted by the world, because the conditions of the times and the international conditions have changed.After the end of the Second World War, international organizations and international law recognized the sovereign independence and national equality of each country. A country, regardless of its size or strength, cannot be conquered or destroyed by force by foreign countries.Although there were still examples of great powers intervening in other countries during and after the Cold War, including intervention by force, they were often condemned and opposed by the international community. If it were not for its internal disintegration, it would be impossible for external forces to eliminate it.This is a great achievement of all nations in the world against colonialism, and it is also a major progress in international relations. In 2003, the United States sent troops to intervene in Iraq. Although it reflected the hegemony of the only superpower, it also reflected the opposition of most people in the world. As a result, the United States won the war, but could not win peace. Lost the soft power of the world's heart. Now, the big powers are no longer a life-and-death relationship in the struggle for hegemony, nor is it a life-and-death struggle between the two camps during the Cold War. The danger of a world war can be avoided to a large extent.All kinds of strategic partnerships and friendly cooperative relations have been established between major countries in order to cooperate and compete at the same time.Of course, there are still military alliances now, but their goals are not the same as those in the Cold War period. They are often not aimed at a specific country, but on specific issues of maintaining regional security.Allies of the United States, such as Europe, South Korea, and Australia, also have different views with the United States on issues related to their own security and interests, especially on how to deal with the rise of China.Some experts even predict that the military alliance will die out within 20 years.Whether this prediction is correct remains to be seen, but it is necessary to pay attention to changes in military alliances.Non-traditional security threats also have a great impact on the world, but after all, it cannot be compared with a world war in which millions of people die.As long as the nations of the world work together, humanity can find a way to meet the challenges. Another phenomenon of the progress of the international system is the rising status of small and medium-sized countries.In the past, the survival of small and medium-sized countries was worrying. They had to follow a certain big country and join a certain group.Only big powers can implement a "balance of power" policy (balance policy), and small and medium-sized countries will either become vassals or become victims of competition between big powers.Today, the survival of small and medium-sized countries is no longer a problem, and they have been protected by international laws and international organizations.Therefore, they can individually or collectively implement a balancing policy towards the great powers.They welcome all major powers to enter the region in order to obtain the greatest benefits, and they are playing a role in the competition of major powers, communicating and coordinating, and their role is increasing day by day.The status and role of ASEAN in the Asia-Pacific region and Central Asian countries in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization are good examples.Under the conditions of globalization, it is difficult for any major country to rule out the existence of other major countries in a region, and it is difficult for any major country to achieve the monopoly dominant position in the past. Makes the idea of ​​a harmonious world more acceptable.